Highest elevation on the NYC?

[Missyg24]

I want to see who can get this right. DO NOT USE GOOGLE, YAHOO, BING, ASK......
What city/town/borough & State is the highest elevation on the Whole NYC System?

[charlie6017]

Hi Missy,

I believe the highest elevation on the old NYC system is in the area of Clearfield, Pa near the coal-fields?

Charlie

[edbear]

How about Becket, Massachusetts on the Boston & Albany, 1700 ft or so. High point on Mass. Turnpike is near there too.

[mackdave]

My nominee is on the Catskill Mountain Branch, Grand Hotel Station, 1885' above sea level.

[RSD15]

Big Moose NY 2035ft

[Statkowski]

The highest point on the entire New York Central System was on its Pennsylvania Division (Beech Creek District) at Carrolltown, Cambria County, Pennsylvania at approximately 2,130 feet above sea level. It was at the eastern end of the Central's Cambria County Railroad, just west of the Wigton Junction connection with the PRR's Cambria & Clearfield Patton No. 2 Branch.

From Cherry Tree, Pa., the NYC had trackage rights "southward" over the PRR's Susquehanna Extension Branch to Spangler in order to access its "east-west" Cambria County Railroad. And, from Wigton Junction, the NYC again had trackage rights eastward to Patton, where it had an isolated branch off of the Patton No. 3 Branch. From Patton northward, the NYC had trackage rights to Mahaffey Junction, and from there ran "northward" to Clearfield and points east. Just to keep things confused, the portion from Mahaffey Junction to Mahaffey Union Station was essentially under PRR control and was not shown in the 1918 ETT. But, for the half-mile from Mahaffey Union Station to WJ, where it joined the main line, was under NYC control and was shown in the 1918 ETT.

A 1918 ETT does not show the Cambria County Railroad since all traffic over the line was handled by the PRR (NYC trains, but PRR handled the dispatching), but it was New York Central trackage, so it qualifies. This portion of the New York Central System had no physical connections with the New York Central, only the PRR.

If you go to http://historicalmaps.arcgis.com/usgs/, enter "Carrolltown, Pa.", click your cursor at the north part of the borough, and then go to the Patton 1904 quadrangle, you'll see the railroad tracks and the elevation markings.

For what it's worth, it's only TWENTY MILES by road from the New York Central's highest point to the PRR's world-famous Horseshoe Curve.

[RSD15]

The branch lines out of Charleston West Virginia up to Clearco. Clearco is about 3350ft.

[Statkowski]

All the USGS maps for Clearco, W.V. show it as Chesapeake & Ohio, not New York Central.

However, if you follow the NYC from Gauley Bridge inland, you do end up in Quinwood at the end of the line, with an elevation of 2,980 feet.

Disregard my earlier posting for Carrolltown, Pennsylvania.

However, if this was Nicholas, Fayette & Greenbrier Railway trackage, then disregard my disregard since the NF&G was a paper railroad jointly-owned by the C&O and NYC. It may have been part of the New York Central "System," but it wasn't New York Central trackage (whereas the Cambria County Railroad mentioned above was).

[RSD15]

Both Quinwood and Clearco were on the NF&G and while it was a paper railroad it was built by the NYC & C&O as ordered by the ICC to stop the fighting between the two. Both roads ran their own trains and used their own crews.

The original question was for "the whole NYC system" and the NF&G was part of the system at the least.
So my guess is still Clearco.
1969 map just replace PC with NYC.

[Statkowski]

Rule Number 1 that I learned while serving on General Staff in the Army with the Problem Solving Process: Clearly define what exactly the problem is - your idea of the "problem"" may only be a "symptom" of the actual problem.

Here - have we clearly defined the question asked? We know what it says, but is that what the Original Poster meant?

Agreed, NF&G trackage, jointly-owned, may count as part of the overall New York Central System, or even New York Central Lines. However, it was not NYC trackage. Corporately, it belonged to a third party.

Missyg24, where are you?

[Missyg24]

No Links please i said. no google, yahoo....

The highest point on the entire New York Central System was on its Pennsylvania Division (Beech Creek District) at Carrolltown, Cambria County, Pennsylvania at approximately 2,130 feet above sea level. It was at the eastern end of the Central's Cambria County Railroad, just west of the Wigton Junction connection with the PRR's Cambria & Clearfield Patton No. 2 Branch.

From Cherry Tree, Pa., the NYC had trackage rights "southward" over the PRR's Susquehanna Extension Branch to Spangler in order to access its "east-west" Cambria County Railroad. And, from Wigton Junction, the NYC again had trackage rights eastward to Patton, where it had an isolated branch off of the Patton No. 3 Branch. From Patton northward, the NYC had trackage rights to Mahaffey Junction, and from there ran "northward" to Clearfield and points east. Just to keep things confused, the portion from Mahaffey Junction to Mahaffey Union Station was essentially under PRR control and was not shown in the 1918 ETT. But, for the half-mile from Mahaffey Union Station to WJ, where it joined the main line, was under NYC control and was shown in the 1918 ETT.

A 1918 ETT does not show the Cambria County Railroad since all traffic over the line was handled by the PRR (NYC trains, but PRR handled the dispatching), but it was New York Central trackage, so it qualifies. This portion of the New York Central System had no physical connections with the New York Central, only the PRR.

If you go to http://historicalmaps.arcgis.com/usgs/, enter "Carrolltown, Pa.", click your cursor at the north part of the borough, and then go to the Patton 1904 quadrangle, you'll see the railroad tracks and the elevation markings.

For what it's worth, it's only TWENTY MILES by road from the New York Central's highest point to the PRR's world-famous Horseshoe Curve.

[Missyg24]

CORRECT ANSWER IS....

CARROLLTOWN PA

Literally in my backyard. charlie6017 you were close, Clearfield isnt too far from me...
Spangler/Barnesboro is 10mins from me that is now Northern Cambria (renamed few years ago)

[Missyg24]

2nd view looking toward the east, coal mine was 1 mile from me.

[BR&P]

I used to drive that route frequently and never did 100% figure out where all the various lines near Spangler, Mahaffey, etc went and connected. (This was before google maps and birds-eye computer views). Also was amazed at the number of old grades wandering around which used to serve one mine or another but had been torn out years ago. And it's incredible the employment figures for back when mining was in progress. 300 at this mine, 450 at that mine, etc, etc.

[Statkowski]

If you really want to do some time-tripping, go to Google Books on-line and upload the 1907 Official Railway Guide. Once you've got that, you can search for town names such as Patton or Mahaffey or Barnesboro or Cherry Tree, and see all the entries that pop up. Buried in them will be both New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroad timetable pages. One of the New York Central maps contained therein shows trackage down to Patton, and then west (to Spangler) - that little stretch is the Cambria County Railroad.

Once upon a time, circa 1906, the PRR had three trains daily (except Sundays) from Cresson to Cherry Tree (over their Cambria & Clearfield Division), with two of them continuing on to Clymer. The New York Central ran one train a day (again, except Sundays) from Possom Glory (now called Heilwood) to Possom Glory Junction (now called Wandin), over to Clymer, than east and north to Cherry Tree and on to Clearfield. There were also two trains a day between Williamsport, Clearfield and Patton.

It's a little bit of a pain trying to read the timetables simply by the way they're formatted, but it does give one a most interesting glimpse into the past.